Jason Hartman talks with Cullen Roche, founder of Pragmatic Capitalism, about macroeconomic events going on today, how Cullen studies the markets, why bonds are more attractive than many believe, and the investment strategy you have to adopt when investing in cryptocurrencies today. The two also take a look at the banking industry, money supply, and asset inflation.

Key Takeaways:

[1:53] What does Pragmatic Capitalism really mean?

[10:26] The macro-economy still looks healthy

[13:40] Cullen looks at the economy like an engineer in order to try and understand what's going on

[17:18] Bonds are probably more attractive than most people believe

[20:10] Cryptocurrencies have become a "greater fool theory" investment

[24:32] Asset inflation is real and it's becoming harder and harder to get into the investor class

[28:50] The banking industry is what creates most of the money in our economy

Jason Hartman talks with Harry Dent, author of the new book Zero Hour, about current demographic trends and what they means for our society (assuming fiscal and monetary policy doesn't go haywire), as well as how long technology takes to go mainstream and impact society, the impact of sunspots on our economy, environment, and psychology, why the new tax reform is the cure for the problem that doesn't exist, and more.

Key Takeaways:

[1:55] What does Harry learn by looking at sunspots?

[6:10] There's both global warming and cooling going on right now thanks to sunspots

[8:08] Harry does NOT believe this is the time to be cutting taxes

[11:08] The greatest BS economic recovery in history

[14:12] How much does money trickle in this consumption driven economy that needs growth?

[17:05] Nobody takes downturns into consideration when planning the future

[20:39] When are we likely to see a spike in life expectancy?

[23:50] The wild card in predictions using demographics is the government's monetary & fiscalpolicy

[27:19] Why we're going to have a big revolution if things don't change

In this 10th Episode Jason Hartman talks with Vijay Eswaran, founder and Executive Chairman of QI and author of Two Minutes from the Abyss. The two discuss the importance of a sense of urgency, living in the moment, and why you need to look at the issues rather than the people trying to influence you.

Key Takeaways:

[2:21] Why a sense of urgency is so crucial

[5:50] How the book got its name (and where Vijay got his sense of urgency)

[8:19] HOW do you start living in the moment and being appreciative

[11:06] How a misdiagnosis for one of Vijay's friends was one of the best things that happened to his life

[14:44] It's more important to listen to the issues rather than be influenced by personalities

Jason wraps up his interview with Macro Watch's Richard Duncan. The two tackle the topic of rising interest rates, better uses for going into further debt than giving it to tax reform, how the Fed will react to a tanking stock market, and what we can expect to see over the next few years.

Key Takeaways:

[00:45] What people don't realize about interest rates

"People buy houses on a payment, not a price"

[1:56] What the Fed will do if the market drops 10% and what else will happen if it drops 20%

[5:15] What Richard wishes the government had done with the $1 trillion in new deficits that will occur from the new tax reform

[9:50] Why Richard thinks the government can invest as wisely as private companies

Jason Hartman welcomes Richard Duncan back to the show to discuss what's going on with fiscal policy and interest rates right now. In the first half of the interview Richard talks about how the trade imbalance with China has enriched the nation and brought millions out of poverty, as well as how the general public has no idea how much the Fed is actually tightening, and how that will impact interest rates.

Key Takeaways:

[2:45] Jason's theory on asset inflation and what it means if the millennials don't join the investor class like the baby boomers did

[5:22] Why the future from an Asian perspective is much brighter than from a US perspective

[7:31] Who's gotten the better end of the China/US trade imbalance?

[13:08] Richard believes the Fed is tightening more than people are understanding

[17:17] The Fed has been destroying at least $10 billion a month since October 2017 and it's going to get bigger

[19:52] The Fed will have destroyed $1 trillion by the end of 2019 if they follow through on their announced plan

[22:01] Is the Fed likely to make a course correction if rates go too high?

Jason Hartman takes a deep look into ICOs and what it takes to fundraise for them. Shane Liddell is CEO at Cryptologist & co-founder of the Cryptoconomy Summit, and he provides insight into how fundraising has changed recently, how to properly spend money to raise money for your ICO, and how to overcome marketing problems created by big companies such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter when they banned crypto ads.

Key Takeaways:

[4:28] How do you raise money for a cryptocurrency?

[8:18] How much does it cost to do an ICO?

[12:12] Marketing troubles now that companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter have shut down cryptocurrency advertising

[17:29] What's the minimum for an ICO?

[20:40] What do you actually spend the money on when you're raising money?

[22:46] How do you market ICOs when big companies are shutting you out?

It's time to take another deep look into rates and ways to finance your properties. Jason talks to lender Aaron about what's going on in regards to rates today, how it's been changing in the last few months, and where to expect it to go in the future.

The two discuss how higher interest rates don't necessarily mean your investments can't make sense. Higher rates also mean more write offs on your taxes, plus your tenant is still paying your debts. So you might have lower cash flow, but it can still be a great inevstment that gets better over time with your locked in rate.

Key Takeaways:

[5:05] Every new regulation requires someone be hired to make sure the lenders are adhering to it, which raises costs

[7:08] What kind of rates can you get today with 20% down?

[10:16] Are people still taking out adjustable rate morgages for investment properties?

[13:02] You need to get your mindeset right when it comes to your real estate business. It's not always strictly about the cash flow

[18:47] The inverse correlation between bonds and rates

[20:49] The best strategy ever is to lock in as many 30 year fixed rates as possible

Jason Hartman welcomes William Cohan, New York Times columnist, special correspondent for Vanity Fair, former contributor to Bloomberg View, and author books such as Why Wall Street Matters, The Last Tycoons, and House of Cards.

William tells Jason his views on the Trump administration, why Donald has had a hard time draining the swamp and who really is to thank for the low unemployment rate and the steady economy.

Key Takeaways:

[1:13] The Trump administration, leverage and cleaning out the gears of the machine that is the US economy.

[7:24] A grand bargain with Wall Street would mean revamping much of its incentive system.

In the final part of Jason's interview with Andrew Zatlin, the two take a look at whether the future of our economy is inflationary or deflationary. The two also look at the impact of technology on inflation, how it impacts the rental markets, and where the volatility in our economy will be in 2018.

Disclosure: this interview was recorded prior to the GOP Tax Reform being written and passed

Key Takeaways:

[1:17] The proof in the inflation pudding is shipping costs

[6:32] The economy is strong in the background

[8:16] Warehousing had a huge impact on the start of the internet

[10:55] When you reach the point where payroll and population growth are the same you don't get wage inflation

[15:20] When housing affordability is low and prices soften, the rental market strengthens

In the first part of Jason Hartman's interview with Moneyball economist Andrew Zatlin, the two of them take a deep look at what's going on in the housing market through the lens that Andrew uses. He looks at hiring patterns of home builders, and has seen a distinct problem in their search for labor. So many industries are hunting for labor that it's creating a bottleneck.

The two also look at short-term rentals, hotel vacancies, the Fed's monetary policy, and what's creating the demand for housing.

Key Takeaways:

[1:16] Andrew likes to check in with companies about what they're doing in regards to hiring

[3:45] Home builders can't hire enough people right now. The bottleneck is labor because there's a LOT of competition for it

[6:42] One question we need to ask is: what's creating all this demand for housing?

[10:47] The environment today makes it more attractive to buy rather than rent

[16:37] Do short-term rental providers need to worry about oversupply?

[18:56] Hotel vacancy rates tipped into the negatives this past year because of short-term rentals exploding in popularity